Current Cases

Insurance Bad Faith Current Cases

This class action arises out of AAA’s unlawful conduct of imposing a five-thousand-dollar sublimit for claims involving “any smoke, soot, ash, char, odor, dust, particulate or other material that is produced, discharged, emitted or released by, or otherwise caused by or resulting from a wildfire.” The lawsuit claims that the defendant’s “Wildfire Smoke Sublimit” is unenforceable because it intends to reduce the coverage limits available to its insurance customers and fails to meet minimum requirements for fire damage and violates the Insurance Code. The class includes all California consumers who are insured by AAA under an exchange policy that includes the Wildfire Smoke Endorsement.

Our firm filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of a man whose domestic partner died as a result of the lack of care caused by an insurance denial by PacifiCare Life and Health Insurance Company.The lawsuit alleges the insurance giant wrongfully and in bad faith terminated health insurance benefits to a man living with AIDS. PacifiCare terminated payments for the man’s medical insurance while he was in need of continued care to treat his medical conditions. The company attempted to rescind the man’s benefits while it still collected premiums on his insurance policy. The man and his partner successfully fought PacifiCare in a Missouri court which ultimately found that PacifiCare’s claims were baseless. However, PacifiCare had interfered with the AIDS patient’s care resulting in the worsening of his medical condition and ultimately in his death. The firm filed the lawsuit on behalf of the man’s surviving partner.

Our firm represents a Los Angeles truck driver who was badly injured on the job while working for Exel Direct. Exel Direct conspired with Zurich American Insurance to force our client to buy an accident insurance policy, in lieu of Exel providing insurance for its drivers.

When the plaintiff suffered extensive neurological and orthopedic injuries after a refrigerator fell on his head, Zurich Insurance refused to investigate or pay his claim. Because our client is misclassified as an independent contractor, he is not receiving workers’ compensation benefits either.

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Consumer Cases:

Our firm filed a class action in Los Angeles Federal Court accusing the largest eyeglass frame maker in the world of a bait-and-switch scheme that defrauds consumers and breaks California law. The lawsuit accuses the defendants Luxottica Retail North America (LRNA), LensCrafters, and Eyexam of California of breaking long-standing laws regulating optometry and the eyeglass industry. For example, LRNA and Eyexam of California engage in fraudulent and unlawful conduct by baiting customers into their retail locations by advertising the availability of eye exams by “independent doctors of optometry.” California law prohibits corporations from being able to exert direct or indirect influence over optometrists. LRNA openly violates these regulations by offering in-store eye examinations at their retail locations from on-site optometrists who are subject to their indirect control and influence through the optometrists’ employment with LRNA’s wholly-owned subsidiary Eyexam of California. As a result of this arrangement, optometrists: have little control over the services they can provide; have no control over the way they write prescriptions; have no control over staffing, work hours, fees they charge, advertisements in their office space; and have limited control over patients’ records. In addition, LRNA employees often sit in on optometrists’ exams in order to ensure that the information being communicated to patients by the optometrists is consistent with LRNA’s business strategy.

This is a class action case against First Data Corporation and related entities for illegal, usurious and unconscionable contracts in connection with credit and debit card process equipment leases. Defendants target small business merchants who use their service to accept credit and debit card payments from customers. In connection with this service, First Data leases swipe machines and pin pads to unsuspecting merchants for many times their actually value.

In several mass action lawsuits, Kabateck Brown Kellner is representing a large group of ARCO/AMPM franchise owners against ARCO/BP. In these cases, the franchisees allege that ARCO/BP encouraged them to test and install a new inventory tracking system manufactured by a publicly-traded company called Retalix. Unfortunately, the software experienced serious and costly problems, including full system shutdowns, ghost transactions, non-compliant releases, and security vulnerabilities. In addition, the plaintiffs allege that BP improperly charges its franchisees for gasoline at wholesale prices that are higher than prices it charges competitor stations. These lawsuits seek injunctive relief, past damages, and compensation for further losses.

Our firm has joined other leading attorneys to initiate a class action lawsuit in Orange County against Yahoo Inc. on behalf of consumers impacted by one of the largest data breaches in history. Yahoo announced in September 2016 that two years earlier, in late 2014, a “state sponsored actor” infiltrated the company’s database and stole the personal information of millions of its users. The stolen information includes full names, passwords, phone numbers and even hints to passwords. Forged cookies were used to hack into Yahoo’s propriety code, allowing thieves to put the data up for sale. Yahoo failed to identify, implement, maintain and appropriately monitor its data security measures. The lawsuit claims the plaintiffs’ personal information was improperly handled and stored, and Yahoo did not have sufficient encryption, which allowed data thieves to easily steal private identifiable information.

Hewlett-Packard (“HP”) has the largest market share of printers and printer cartridges in the United States. HP makes a substantial profit from selling printer cartridges. In a series of class action cases filed on behalf of consumers by Kabateck Brown Kellner, it is alleged that HP has incorporated technologies that either prevent consumers from using all of the toner that they have purchased, or accelerate the use of toner in a manner that is not disclosed. As a result, HP makes a substantial profit at the expense of consumers. For inkjet printers, the lawsuit alleges that HP has designed many models to use color ink when printing black and white text or images, causing the printer to use expensive color toner even though the user is not printing a color image or text. In a separate case, the plaintiffs allege that HP has designed its printers and cartridges to shut down on an undisclosed “expiration date” which occurs before they have run out of ink. Kabateck Brown Kellner also represents consumers that have filed a class action alleging that HP has designed its laser printers to indicate that HP toner cartridges are empty, when in fact a significant amount of toner remains. The complaints also allege, depending on the printer model, that the user is either prevented from printing until a new cartridge is installed or the user has to follow a complex set of steps to override the shutdown mechanism.

Previously dismissed class actions against several large homebuilders are now able to proceed in a reversal from the Fourth District Court of Appeal. 10 construction companies are alleged to have installed defective copper pipes in Ladera Ranch homes that degraded and leaked, which has forced approximately 6,000 homeowners to require replacements. Two of the homebuilding companies, K. Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc., and DR Horton Los Angeles Holding Company had the class allegations dismissed at the pleading stage; KBK successfully appealed that decision, which has allowed the actions to proceed. 600 Ladera Ranch homeowners have already settled class action cases with two homebuilders for a total of $8 million. The homeowners sustained water damage and had to replace all of the piping in their home.

KBK has filed a class action lawsuit against Los Angeles County and Sutherland Healthcare Solutions for claims the entities failed to protect consumers’ sensitive data while doing medical billing. The medical records of over 340,000 patients were burglarized, and the thieves have ruined credit scores and amassed mountains of bills. Adding insult to injury is that investigations show that a Sutherland employee acted as an “inside man”—aiding the burglar. KBK found that Los Angeles County made data theft even easier by sending private medical files to Sutherland without any encryption. Sutherland itself took no steps to encrypt the data after the fact, and on the night of the burglary, the alarm system was not activated. KBK’s class action suit against the county and Sutherland faces the added difficulty of proving that the thief viewed the medical records, under the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, in order to seek recourse.

Families who entrusted the remains of loved ones to the Biological Resource Center of Illinois were devastated to learn that bodies were dismembered and sold off for profit. Some remains were used in crash tests, and even military explosion tests. The profit for one legal full cadaver ranged from between $10,000-$50,000, however dismembered bodies supposedly fetched even higher prices. A separately owned business with the same name in Arizona was also investigated for similar crimes. Even more egregious than the body thefts was that some cadavers that carried deadly diseases, including HIV, were sold without warning to unwitting buyers.
Distraught survivors who thought that the company would provide them with partial ashes after making the donation to science later learned that the remains they received may not even have been those of their family members. KBK also notes the injustice that survivors will have to pay for the state to identify and return recovered remains.

KBK has come to the aid of victims with a malpractice lawsuit against doctors who allegedly implanted counterfeit metal screws into patients’ backs during surgery. Hospitals and surgical hardware distributors are also named as defendants—all colluding in implanting non-FDA approved medical hardware, taking kickbacks for their misdeeds and cutting costs while endangering their patients’ welfare. Former owner of Pacific Hospital of Long Beach Michael Drobot was also named in the suit, as responsible for the distribution of the counterfeit screws, and bribing doctors to bring patients to his hospital.

Sewage backups after heavy rainfall became dangerous to residents of Long Beach, CA mobile home park “Friendly Village”. Poor drainage seemed to be the obvious problem, but the residents recently learned that their homes were built atop a landfill, an obvious health hazard. The residents also suffered serious health risks due to methane and benzene leaks. Victims reported nausea, disorientation, and falling unconscious. More serious health issues included nagging coughs and cancer. Complaints have alleged that the park’s management dragged their feet instead of improving the situation. When on top of all this, rents were slated to be increased, KBK intervened to petition the court to freeze current rents, and to help get justice for the struggling, sickened residents.

Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital faced a class-action lawsuit for failing to protect the personal medical information of 32,500 patients. Litigant and victim Kenneth Rice sought $32,500,000 in damages for the breach caused when third-party vendor (and co-defendant) InSync removed “electronic security protections” and allowed very sensitive patient data to be exposed. The data was available for two months in an unencrypted cloud server accessible to anyone surfing the Internet. It was only on December 12th, 2014 that Cottage informed its patients of the lack of security.

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Invasion of Privacy Current Cases

Our firm has joined other leading attorneys to initiate a class action lawsuit in Orange County against Yahoo Inc. on behalf of consumers impacted by one of the largest data breaches in history. Yahoo announced in September 2016 that two years earlier, in late 2014, a “state sponsored actor” infiltrated the company’s database and stole the personal information of millions of its users. The stolen information includes full names, passwords, phone numbers and even hints to passwords. Forged cookies were used to hack into Yahoo’s propriety code, allowing thieves to put the data up for sale. Yahoo failed to identify, implement, maintain and appropriately monitor its data security measures. The lawsuit claims the plaintiffs’ personal information was improperly handled and stored, and Yahoo did not have sufficient encryption, which allowed data thieves to easily steal private identifiable information.

Do you have a similar case you would like to discuss with KBK? Please click here to contact one of our attorneys now.

Employment Law Current Cases

This is a class action lawsuit for wage and labor violations involving a port trucking company that allegedly misclassified its truck drivers as contractors, thereby cheating them on wages. The lawsuit accuses Roadrunner of failing to pay its trucker drivers minimum wage, not paying for sick days, vacation, holidays, providing meals or rest breaks and refusing to reimburse business expenses. Nicholas E. Rich represented the class, which consists of dozens of truckers who work as independent contractors for Roadrunner. This lawsuit is one of several other trucker misclassification cases the firm is litigating that exposes the unfair labor practices that run rampant in the trucking industry.

KBK is handling a class action lawsuit filed in Las Vegas Federal Court that alleges Go Wireless, Inc. failed to accurately pay commissions to its employees. Go Wireless is the operator of 15 Verizon Wireless stores in Nevada and 500 locations nationwide. Employees from Nevada-based Go Wireless are compensated in part by commissions earned on the sale of various items, including phone accessories and handset insurance. Class members include those employees who worked for Go Wireless run stores over the last 4 years. As a result of a self-proclaimed “glitch” in the Go Wireless computer system, employees were not paid certain commissions earned and due according to the lawsuit. This Class Action lawsuit seeks compensation on behalf of the plaintiffs for unpaid commissions that were earned and due. The lawsuit claims that Go Wireless’s “glitch” in its own computer system devalued the hard work, effort and commitment of its employees for a financial benefit to Go Wireless.

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Class Actions Current Cases

Brian Kabateck is co-lead counsel in an employment class action lawsuit involving the ride sharing giant, Uber. The case involves Uber drivers who contend they’ve been misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees and are suing the company for failing to pay overtime wages, minimum wages, reimbursement of expenses and engaging in additional labor code violations. Mr. Kabateck also represents the named plaintiff in another class action against Uber, Douglas O’Connor, who hired KBK to replace Boston attorney, Shannon Liss-Riordan, who negotiated an unfair settlement. That proposed settlement failed to adequately compensate Uber drivers for additional claims, and prevented all Uber drivers them from pursuing claims in the future. KBK vehemently objected to Shannon Liss-Riordan’s settlement on behalf of Douglas O’Connor and the class in the Del Rio case.

On August 18, 2016, Judge Chen rejected the settlement that was reached between Uber and Shannon Liss-Riordan, who was trying to settle the matter on behalf of ALL drivers. Judge Chen found that the proposed settlement was unfair because it allowed all PAGA claims against Uber to be settle for a measly $1 million, which is just 0.1% of Liss-Riordan’s $1 billion in PAGA penalties. Another reason for the rejection of the settlement was that Liss-Riordan was trying to settle claims that she did not make (or evaluate) in her lawsuit, but which were made by other drivers represented by other lawyers, like the ones made by the Plaintiffs in the Del Rio case.

KBK filed a class action lawsuit against the website JustMugshots.com for privacy violation because of the website’s Internet extortion scheme. The website posted peoples’ mug shots then charged them to have their photos removed from the site to make money. Many of these victims have lost jobs, had trouble renting apartments and face ridicule for having their photos associated with a crime they never committed. California just passed a law in January making this online shakedown illegal. The litigation prompted state lawmakers to draft a Senate Bill that passed and became law in 2014.

California truckers have recently filed hundreds of lawsuits stemming from the misclassification of employees as “independent contractors”, which deprives these truckers of minimum wage, paid overtime, benefits, meals and rest breaks provided to employee drivers and crewmembers.

9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that independent contractors deserve the same pay and protections as employees, under California law, because they signed independent contractor agreements and are doing the same work and are under the same control of the company as employees. KBK represents hundreds of truck drivers who are suing various trucking companies who engage in driver misclassification.

Our firm has joined other leading attorneys to initiate a class action lawsuit in Orange County against Yahoo Inc. on behalf of consumers impacted by one of the largest data breaches in history. Yahoo announced in September 2016 that two years earlier, in late 2014, a “state sponsored actor” infiltrated the company’s database and stole the personal information of millions of its users. The stolen information includes full names, passwords, phone numbers and even hints to passwords. Forged cookies were used to hack into Yahoo’s propriety code, allowing thieves to put the data up for sale. Yahoo failed to identify, implement, maintain and appropriately monitor its data security measures. The lawsuit claims the plaintiffs’ personal information was improperly handled and stored, and Yahoo did not have sufficient encryption, which allowed data thieves to easily steal private identifiable information.

This class action arises out of AAA’s unlawful conduct of imposing a five-thousand-dollar sublimit for claims involving “any smoke, soot, ash, char, odor, dust, particulate or other material that is produced, discharged, emitted or released by, or otherwise caused by or resulting from a wildfire.” The lawsuit claims that the defendant’s “Wildfire Smoke Sublimit” is unenforceable because it intends to reduce the coverage limits available to its insurance customers and fails to meet minimum requirements for fire damage and violates the Insurance Code. The class includes all California consumers who are insured by AAA under an exchange policy that includes the Wildfire Smoke Endorsement.

This is a class action lawsuit for wage and labor violations involving a port trucking company that allegedly misclassified its truck drivers as contractors, thereby cheating them on wages. The lawsuit accuses Roadrunner of failing to pay its trucker drivers minimum wage, not paying for sick days, vacation, holidays, providing meals or rest breaks and refusing to reimburse business expenses. Nicholas E. Rich represented the class, which consists of dozens of truckers who work as independent contractors for Roadrunner. This lawsuit is one of several other trucker misclassification cases the firm is litigating that exposes the unfair labor practices that run rampant in the trucking industry.

Our firm filed a class action in Los Angeles Federal Court accusing the largest eyeglass frame maker in the world of a bait-and-switch scheme that defrauds consumers and breaks California law. The lawsuit accuses the defendants Luxottica Retail North America (LRNA), LensCrafters, and Eyexam of California of breaking long-standing laws regulating optometry and the eyeglass industry. For example, LRNA and Eyexam of California engage in fraudulent and unlawful conduct by baiting customers into their retail locations by advertising the availability of eye exams by “independent doctors of optometry.” California law prohibits corporations from being able to exert direct or indirect influence over optometrists. LRNA openly violates these regulations by offering in-store eye examinations at their retail locations from on-site optometrists who are subject to their indirect control and influence through the optometrists’ employment with LRNA’s wholly-owned subsidiary Eyexam of California. As a result of this arrangement, optometrists: have little control over the services they can provide; have no control over the way they write prescriptions; have no control over staffing, work hours, fees they charge, advertisements in their office space; and have limited control over patients’ records. In addition, LRNA employees often sit in on optometrists’ exams in order to ensure that the information being communicated to patients by the optometrists is consistent with LRNA’s business strategy.

In a potential class action, Kabateck Brown Kellner is representing a large group of ARCO/AMPM franchise owners against ARCO/BP. In this case, the franchises allege that ARCO/BP encouraged them to test a new inventory tracking system manufactured by a publicly-traded company called Retalix. Unfortunately, the software experienced serious and costly problems, including full system shutdowns, ghost transactions, non-compliant releases, and security vulnerabilities. After detecting and noting these problems, ARCO/BP shut down the pilot program in California, but reopened it on the East Coast. The problems persisted there. ARCO/BP was eventually sued by East Coast franchisees, and settled that case. Despite a mandatory “upgrade” to the program in California in 2009, the problems persist. The class action seeks injunctive relief against the company and compensation for further losses.

KBK represents misclassified truck drivers in a class action matter against Gold Point Transportation, Inc. due to violating California state wage and hour laws with regards to the truck drivers it employed. The issues include: failing to fully compensate all employees earned wages (including minimum wages); forcing employees to work without appropriate meal breaks (and failing to compensate for the lost breaks); similarly forcing employees to work without rest breaks and failing to give compensation for those lost breaks; failing to pay wages of discharged or resigned employees; failing to provide reimbursements to employees for job-related expenses; and failing to provide itemized wage statements. Gold Point misclassified its non-exempt employees as “independent contractors” in an effort to avoid compliance with California laws.

Do you have a similar case you would like to discuss with KBK? Please click here to contact one of our attorneys now.

Personal Injury Current Cases

KBK represents a young man from Palm Springs who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a bicycling accident involving a professional driver. The cyclist was traveling westbound on east Vista Chino from Cathedral City to Palm Springs when he encountered a reckless and inattentive driver. The professional driver was in the course and scope of his job at the time of the accident. While the defendant driver has been categorized as an “independent contractor”, under California law he is viewed as an employee and/or agent of the logistic brokers who hired him to deliver medications.

KBK represents the family of a man struck and killed by a drunk driving substance-abuse counselor in a wrongful death lawsuit against the woman’s employer, Twin Town Treatment Center. Sherri Wilkins is serving a 55-years to life prison sentence for fatally hitting 31-year-old Phillip Moreno with a company car in November 2012 as Wilkins left her job at the Torrance counseling center. The family argues Twin Town Treatment Center failed to properly monitor Sherri Wilkins, who appeared under the influence of drugs and alcohol during the treatment sessions she facilitated.

KBK represents the mother and son of a pickup truck driver who died in a crash in Beverly Hills on the same steep street where two LAPD officers were killed in 2014. We’ve filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city on behalf of Maria Caridade Rodrigues, the mother of 25-year-old Gerbis Gomes, and his son, Leonardo Maldonado. On January 15, 2016, Gomes, who was driving south on Loma Vista Drive toward Doheny Road, lost control of his vehicle and struck a parked car. Gomes remained trapped in the wreckage for about 30 minutes and died at a hospital about two hours after the crash. Prior to Gomes’ death, two LAPD officers died on the same road after trucks lost control driving down the steep street, crossed the double yellow lines and slammed into parked vehicles. Despite these tragic deaths, the city has failed to properly address and remediate this dangerous condition.

KBK is fighting for justice on behalf of the family of a 57-year-old woman who was struck and killed in crosswalk on September 14, 2014. Our firm filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, LA County LA Department of Transportation and the defendant driver. The decedent, Gloria Ortiz, had recently become a naturalized US citizen and was leaving a party celebrating her citizenship when she was struck in the Highland Park roadway as her family members watched in horror. The Ortiz family is suing these public entities for premises liability, arguing the roadway created a trap for pedestrians and drivers by creating a false sense of security. This roadway creates a trap for pedestrians by concealing the fact that this was not a safe place to cross, instead it’s a dangerous condition. The illusion of safety gave pedestrians a false sense of security because there is an existence of a vaguely visible crosswalk that is not easily seen by drivers.

Our firm filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of a man whose domestic partner died as a result of the lack of care caused by an insurance denial by PacifiCare Life and Health Insurance Company.The lawsuit alleges the insurance giant wrongfully and in bad faith terminated health insurance benefits to a man living with AIDS. PacifiCare terminated payments for the man’s medical insurance while he was in need of continued care to treat his medical conditions. The company attempted to rescind the man’s benefits while it still collected premiums on his insurance policy. The man and his partner successfully fought PacifiCare in a Missouri court which ultimately found that PacifiCare’s claims were baseless. However, PacifiCare had interfered with the AIDS patient’s care resulting in the worsening of his medical condition and ultimately in his death. The firm filed the lawsuit on behalf of the man’s surviving partner.

Our firm represents a man who contracted Valley Fever, a fungal infection that results in fever, chest pains and coughing, as a result of his employers’ negligence. Geoffrey Sagehorn was a construction worker at California Solar Ranch in San Luis Obispo who was exposed to a tremendous amount of dust and airborne particles. This exposure was a direct result of the Defendants’ failure to keep the worksite’s soil moist and prevent the Valley Fever spores from becoming airborne. As a result of his exposure to the spores, Mr. Sagehorn contracted the illness known as Valley Fever and suffers physical and emotional damages.

KBK is handing a personal injury lawsuit involving a 10-year-old boy who suffered a serious injury while riding a roller coaster at Knotts Berry Farm. The “Coast Rider” is marketed to youngsters as “the ultimate family coaster experience” and remains in service, despite at least two children being hurt on this roller coaster. In June of 2013, Carson Burrei and his family went on the Knotts Berry roller coaster for the first time. The locomotive came to a full stop when Carson began getting out of the ride. Suddenly the coaster moved forward, trapping the boy’s leg between the cart and the deck. The force of the motion ripped all the skin off his foot, fractured his leg and caused significant nerve damage. The amusement park staff did nothing to assist the child, who received emergency care from his father until medics arrived. Doctors had to reattach his tendons. After the surgery, Carson spent 3 months in a wheelchair and required months of physical therapy. According to an OSHA incident report, a 6-year-old child suffered a similar injury just a few months before Carson’s ordeal. We have the document that outlines that incident. Carson’s lawsuit contends general negligence, premises liability and emotional distress.

KBK has filed five lawsuits against the Monson Sultana Unified School District on behalf of male victims whose genitals were unknowingly photographed (while they slept) by convicted pedophile, David Blancas, who was the boys’ 6th grade teacher and basketball coach at Monson Sultana Elementary School. The plaintiffs are now in their late teens and early 20’s. Blancas bought the boys clothing, jewelry, video consoles and sports equipment. Blancas would take the boys on road trips to basketball tournaments, amusement parks and other kid-friendly outings. They frequently spent the night in hotels. Unbeknownst to the boys, Blancas took pornographic images of their genitals at night, while the boys slept. During the course of the police investigation that eventually led to Blancas’ conviction of rape and sexual abuse, investigators found his computer hard drive with a trove of photographs. The young men are suing for emotional distress.

KBK is suing the County of Sacramento for the wrongful death of pedestrian Jevon D. Lee, due to its negligence in keeping the area safe for pedestrians crossing traffic. Without the protection of a crosswalk, sidewalk, or regulatory traffic signage, Mr. Lee was killed by driver Oscar Porras while crossing the street. The County was made aware of the dangers of the site where Mr. Lee lost his life prior to the fatality, but failed to act to improve the safety of the location. The mother of the decedent, Sarah Lee, sought judgment against Sacramento County to compensate her for the funeral costs, and for the loss of her son’s companionship and physical and financial assistance.

Do you have a similar case you would like to discuss with KBK? Please click here to contact one of our attorneys now.